“This week’s 2013 World Economic Forum calls for social entrepreneurs as architects of this year’s theme: Resilient Dynamism. Last year at Davos 2012, after a panel on social entrepreneurship, I witnessed the room buzzing with phrases like “creative capitalism” and “solving the problems of the world’s poor” as bubbly champagne was poured and shrimp cocktail served. The world business owners,celebrities, and athletes, dressed in black suits and armed with blackberries, vigorously engaged in discussion, forming a new social enterprise mafia. But is this a bit of self love and self congratulation? What has arisen for elites is social enterprise as the solution, a remaking of the world in the image that has made them successful. Charity is no longer charity: it is applying capitalism to make the poor rich.

While it would be convenient and gratifying if maximizing profit and minimizing social suffering worked well together, evidence suggests that in many instances, the combination is a volatile one. Social entrepreneurship is just a buzz word, and it never succeeds without a deep understanding of the local environment, corporate governance, and long-term infrastructure. If I were Bill Gates or any other elites at Davos, I would remove the champagne and shrimp cocktail and bring the CEOs to India for a week as an assessment team. The concept of social enterprise, so attractive in sites like Davos, tends to fall apart when we actually step outside the Western world. I know it did for me and I wish I could give theelites at Davos the same experience.

I joined an education social enterprise startup in 2009 focused on selling high quality e-learning tools to schools in small towns. It was led by an Indian-American, with an all-Indian board. It sounded great to me. We had adiverse team from both India and the US with backgrounds in social enterprise fundraising, networking and technology product development and a wealth of Indian education contacts. Within three months, our apparent promise made us an education award finalist at an Indian social enterprise forum in Mumbai. The only problem was that this promise ended up being an intention without effective follow-through. We ended up not getting the funding we needed and did not sell any e-learning tools to the schools we visited. I took away three major lessons for our social enterprise attempt that failed. First, it is difficult to lead a social enterprise with a Western perspective. We were structurally set up to please our investors more than our customers, causing a haze of distraction. Second, in any sizeable market, social enterprises cannot get too far before being hit by the big players. We were quickly overthrown by large for-profit education corporations who were entering the low income market and were better than we were. Lastly, investment takes commitment and ongoing resources. I lasted almost a year, but other priorities, and frustration, lured me away. Just how far does the patience and commitment of those in the Davos group extend?

I don’t want to be too hard on social entrepreneurs. Certainly foundations with large amounts of money arefacing similar problems. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has spent $450M in funding for a malaria vaccine, with no cure yet in sight. Google.org, founded by Larry Brilliant, was set to change the face of philanthropy, butrecently scaled back, reorganizing around more modest goals that play to the company’s high-tech strengths. From these examples, social enterprise is an improvement over merely aid with no thought, but there are places where it is being done well and others where it is being done poorly.

Current work among the elites and work in social enterprise can indeed be a good thing, but we need to get away from romanticizing social entrepreneurship and instead focus on providing the resources that local social entrepreneurs need to grow these enterprises. My request to Davos leaders; let’s remove the bubbly champagne and shrimp cocktail, turn the social enterprise mafia into an assessment team in India, and examine social enterprises for both their strengths and limitations–that is resilient dynamism.”

Consider buying sustainable fashion products that are made with eco-friendly materials, made under fair-trade conditions, or both

Stay fashionable: Look out for some interesting reports on 2013 fashion trends

Wear eco-friendly fabrics and ethically made accessories

Follow us on Twitter (@enablechange) and subscribe to our blog to get regular update on ethical fashion and gifts

Share the sustainable fashion movement with your friends buying ethically made and eco-friendly gifts for them and shopping for ethically made fashion

We hope that you have kept up with these and your own personal resolutions and goals for 2013. We know it’s difficult to maintain the discipline and perseverance to achieve theidealistic and sometimes lofty goals we set for ourselves. However, it’s the little steps, such as going to the gym once in a while, opting for the salad instead of the fries one night a week, volunteering once a month, choosing to buy an ethically conscious gift for a friend, that make the difference. Consider the little changes you can make to your life to live up to your goals for 2013 and don’t give up!

“When times get hard, there is an incentive for businesses to practice corporate social responsibility (CSR) more, and to do so in a better way. Companies have begun to realise how the good behaviours they adopt and embed for its reputation can actually have a positive impact on their bottom line! So it’s important to stay ahead of the sustainability curve through social innovation initiatives, technologies and policies. One of the best ways to learn about best practices is to attend CSR-themed conferences, and in 2013, there will be many to choose from.”

Support the #Globallove Campaign. This Valentine’s Day, spread the love with us by supporting our #Globallove campaign. This season consider buying ethically-made and fair-trade gifts for your special someone and share your love with the artisans too, who need it the most around the world.

From January 28th to February 14th, enjoy 35% off on our entire collection by entering discount code: “globallove” at checkout. To spread #GlobalLove even further, we can send your gifts directly to address/recipient of your choice with a little card/greetings. So share with your heart this Valentine’s Day and play a part in bringing global social change!

We can’t believe it’s almost February. We just got done paying our visa bills from all the ethical Christmas shopping we did, and its’ time to plan that perfect Valentine’s Day for a friend or a significant other! Shopanthropic loves sharing love so needless to say we are excited for Valentine’s Day! We are also excited to launch our second annual Global Love Campaign! Here’s an excerpt from a post we made last year about this initiative:

“Retail shelves are already lined with a sea of red and pink, hearts and chocolates, stuffed teddy bears and any other consumer product that will make some lucky person`s heart melt on February 14th. Depending on who you talk to, Valentine’s Day is either an excellent opportunity to remind your special someone you love them, or another commercial gimmick to sell chocolate and diamonds. I propose a new purpose for Valentine`s day – February 14th is an opportunity for you to show that your care – not just about your special someone, but about the world – about someone half way around the world. This is something that we at Shopanthropic calls the #GlobalLove Campaign.

We`re talking about Valentine’s Day with a twist. The twist is that we are sharing love with those who need it around the world – the impoverished, the meek, the ones stuck in the poverty cycle. By shopping ethically, being aware of where your products are coming and the conditions they are made in, considering the environmental impact of the materials used in the everyday consumer good you use, donating to a microfinance fund that supports artisans in becoming self-sufficient and working towards a world where individuals working in developing countries receive fair wages for their efforts – you are caring for individuals globally.

At Shopanthropic, we believe we are working towards this mandate by supporting artisans, particularly women, in developing countries become self-sufficient. By encouraging them to use their craftsmanship to create viable businesses, supporting them for their continuous development and expanding their work, and helping them find the markets to sell these products to – we are caring for others.

So on and around February 14th tweet the term #Globallove and use Valentine’s Day as a chance to create some social change. At Shopanthropic, we are going to be doing some special offers to share some #Globallove with you – consider buying an ethically made or fair-trade gift for that special someone. From January 28th to February 14th, you can enjoy special prices on our entire collection. Additionally, we will be tweeting and blogging about topics relating to the #Globallove campaign. So make sure you view our collection @www.shopanthropic.com.”

Spread the love this Valentine’s Day season by supporting the #Globallove campaign. Stay tuned for our Valentine’s Day specials as part of the #Globallove campaign, some interesting blogs and other treats!

A curious look at what social enterprise means in the a few different countries. Here is an article from the Philippines:

“In its broadest sense, social entrepreneurship is about innovative solutions to social problems. In countries like the Philippines where poverty and inequality are worsening despite economic growth, innovative solutions to these problems are not only desired but are also urgent.”

Here is an article about social enterprise and ethical fashion in Ghana:

“With an impressive line up of fashion events about to take place in Ghana’s capital city of Accra this year, the Ghanaian fashion industry is well on its way to become an international fashion and design platform and play an important role in boosting the country’s overall economy.

In May 2013, the country will once again host its glam and glitzy affair Fashion Night Out 2013, aiming to showcase the latest creations from Ghana’s prolific designers. Expecting to draw attention from both local and international media, the event themed as ‘Globalizing African Fashion’ is surely going to cut through the geographical and cultural barriers.”

The United Kingdom has long been a leader in the social investment sector and countries such as the US have been “inspired by social bonds in the UK and was now trialling [their] own.” These bonds are designed to focus on social change in the countries they are enacted in. The United Kingdom is a leader in this space because of their highly developed legal and financial ecosystem that supports social enterprise. Furthermore, they have taken this ecosystem platform and transported social enterprise into every sector of their economy.

One of the key factors to this success has been the strong external tie between the government and social enterprise, and an internal connectedness in the sector. What can be described as a “state and systematic engagement with social enterprise,” the country is able to strengthen the infrastructure put in place, while fostering cultural values that align with the cause.
However, according to a recent article in The Guardian, there are still many areas the UK can capitalize on, as they world explores social enterprise business models.

“One of the big areas where the UK can capitalise is with its specialist knowledge of social enterprises delivering public service. The UK is ahead in a number of areas, including innovation in public service delivery models.”

However, social enterprise leaders in the country state that the UK model isn’t necessarily perfected and worth emulating, due to issues such as a lack of social investors, or individuals ready to give money to social entrepreneurs. This issue seems to be prevalent around the world as one of the toughest challenge social entrepreneurs face is finding way to prove their business idea is worth as much as a regular profit-generating venture. The industry has to go beyond just hyping up new ventures and find tangible ways to demonstrate they deserve funding and social investment.

It goes beyond using words like transformational or social change, and finding ways to truly create change.

“I find that every social enterprise in the UK talks about being transformational, but being transformational takes a lot more than selling a new gadget. You have to be at the heart of communities for a long, long time. I think more diligence and rigour is required to identify and focus support on enterprises that have true potential to create change.”

Fur is a big point of contention when it comes to ethical and sustainable fashion is the wearing of fur. Every celebrity falls for their glamour but the conditions that the animals are kept in and the cruelty involved in the creation of the pelts is nothing short of horrifying. Here is an excerpt:

“A few years ago, while stepping out in five metres and £99 worth of jagged acrylic fake fur, I stopped to pat an adorable angelic-faced long haired dachshund. My hand had barely reached his soft velvety ears when his owner tugged him back, almost lynching him, while yelping: “He doesn’t take kindly to those wearing his own kin.” I was so annoyed at her cheek that I took recourse in snark and said: “Really, are his kin sold by the metre? If I don’t put on rubber boots when Iwear this coat I spark like a Catherine wheel.”

My pavement adversary should have cause for concern today as there seems to be a wind of change blowing along the catwalk and out onto the streets, the whirling zeitgeist seems to be carrying away the old prejudices against the wearing of fur.

Look around – some of the most stylish and successful women are swathing themselves in mink and sable. Kate Moss has just been seen strutting through Notting Hill in a duck egg blue, three-quarter length Fendi mink coat. Lady Gaga, who previously insisted on a chat show that she would never wear fur, recently spent £130,000 on two fur coats while shopping in Moscow then tweeted to her 20 million followers that it was, effectively real fur: “For those press and such who are writing about whether or not my fur is actually real please don’t forget to credit the designer Hermes.” Hermes does not trade in fakes. Catherine Zeta-Jones, Kim Kardashian and Beyonce are also getting under the collars of protestors.

They are not alone. For every celebrity wrapping themselves in animal pelts, there are tens of thousands of members of the public.”

2013 is off to a good start as some big names are addressing the climate revolution movement.

For example, designer Vivienne Westwood used her runway in Milan to promote a positive eco-friendly fashion message. Her models had puffed lips and painted black eyes, as though they had been physically fighting the battle. As the collection went on, slogans calling for an end to the climate crisis were printed on white T-shirts. “Climate revolution is the only means toward a sound economy. When the general public massively switches on to this fact we will win,” she said in her fashion notes, which accompanied her winter 2014 menswear collection previewed Sunday.

Ethical fashion has gone from hemp pants, etc. (i.e. clothing that has more of a focus on its sustainable side) to runway friendly pieces that focus equally on design and sustainability. Major labels such as H&M, Gucci and Stella McCartney have made eco-friendly products.

Can Ethical Fashion surpass Mainstream Fashion in terms of Design?

Ethical or Sustainable fashion is innovative

New sustainable textiles (better quality)

Many of these textiles offer benefits such as being silky, hypoallergenic, breathable and stretch resistant

Traditional textiles (embracing fashion from a variety of cultures)

The tribal trend is a great example of this since ethical fashion embraced authentic designs from Africa and Asia

New textures for designers to test

What are Misconceptions and Mistakes that Ethical Fashion Consumers can Make?

Greenwashing: when products are labelled eco-friendly but they aren’t actually that “green”

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The Bay & Harbour Blog

Bay & Harbour is the brainchild of a Toronto-based mother/daughter team with an eye for trend-setting, unique and high-quality fashion & lifestyle products.

The pair is inspired by different cultures, handicraft techniques, discrete designs, and fashion trends from their travels around the world. Bay & Harbour as their outlet to share that love of design with others.

The Bay & Harbour collections feature a variety of accessories & lifestyle products for both men & women.

The co-founders are passionate about fashion with a cause. Many of the Bay & Harbour collections also include pieces that are sustainable and / or ethically made.